Mother's Daughter
by KepnerAvery
Summary: After Jackson catches their daughter having sex in a supply closet, she and April have a heart to heart. They find that they're more alike than they ever realized. Futurefic based off of a Tumblr prompt.


**A/N: This is based off of a Tumblr prompt, "After Jackson catches his daughter having sex in a supply closet, she and April have a heart to heart." Takes place way in the future. And we'll just assume Jackson was giving a guest lecture at the hospital she works at, okay? Okay**

"Dad's going to kill me."

"Clara-"

"He is, he's going to kill me."

April Avery chuckled, placing a cup of tea on the table near where her daughter had buried her head in her arms and was refusing to look up.

"He's not going to kill you. I am a little surprised he didn't kill your… boyfriend?"

Clara groaned, finally lifting her head to meet her mother's gaze across the table.

"He's not my boyfriend. At least, I don't think he is. It's complicated. I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay, fine. We don't have to talk about it. My point is that if all your father did was scare the poor boy out of the supply closet without his pants, I'm sure he'll be able to forgive you."

The younger woman dropped her face back into her arms, certain that her mother could feel the heat radiating from her cheeks even from across the table.

"Mom," Clara grumbled, "I really don't want to talk about it. I'm sorry I brought it up. Can we please talk about something else?"

"Okay, okay. So… how's your friend Noah? You don't mention him much any-"

"MOM!"

April furrowed her brow in confusion as Clara's head shot up from the table, her expression a mixture of embarrassment and pleading. She couldn't remember her daughter mentioning a falling out with her best friend. Clara had raved about Noah ever since they met during their internship. Since starting her third year of residency she hadn't talked about him much, but she'd never given the impression that they weren't friends anymore. In fact, before she stopped talking about him it had sounded like they were closer than ever.

"Oh," April said finally, realization dawning, "Oh sweetie I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Clara sighed, softening when she realized her mother was truly apologetic.

"It's okay," she said, stirring her tea absentmindedly, "I'm sorry for snapping. I know I didn't tell you, I just didn't want you to be mad."

She averted her eyes to the table, trying to avoid the judgemental glare she knew her mother must be giving her. Clara knew her mother loved her, but she had also grown up hearing all about her religious beliefs (beliefs she didn't share, but respected all the same) and didn't think that Jesus would approve of her having premarital sex with her best friend in a supply closet. So she couldn't help but be a little surprised when April reached across the table and took her hand, giving it a squeeze. When Clara looked up she was even more surprised to see that the expression on her mother's face was not of disapproval, but concern.

"Clara, why would I be mad at you?"

"I may not be into the whole Christianity thing mom, but I know you are, and I know it's important to you. I've been having sex since I was seventeen-"

"seventeen?"

"... but I never told you because I didn't want to upset you. I mean every time I have sex in an on call room with Noah I kind of feel like I'm paving my way to hell."

April gave a nervous laugh, casually retracting her hand and pretending to rub an itch on her face to conceal the blush spreading over her cheeks. Her fair skin was a lot less forgiving than her daughter's darker tone, and she could tell Clara noticed.

"You know, the Bible bans a lot of things I don't necessarily agree with," April said, her eyes roaming Clara's apartment as she tried to avoid her daughter's incredulous gaze.

"Holy shit, mom-"

"It was so nice of your grandmother to give you her apartment when she moved to Seattle full time, " April deflected, "good housing in Boston is hard to find."

"Mom, you had sex before you were married?"

April sighed, giving in and meeting her daughter's curious gaze.

"I waited a very long time, and I was planning on saving myself for marriage, but-"

"But dad couldn't keep it in his pants long enough to walk down the aisle?"

"Something like that."

Clara nodded thoughtfully, taking a sip of tea. So her mother wasn't such a prude after all. The new knowledge brought Noah back into her mind, and she swallowed a lump in her throat along with the tea. The whole thing was so confusing, and all she had wanted to do was talk to someone about it. He was her only close friend in the program, and she definitely couldn't talk to him about it. But now that she knew her mother was at least possibly okay with premarital sex, the whole story seemed to burst out like uncontrollable word vomit.

"Noah's my best friend," she started, "he's been my best friend since our internship, but then a few months ago we were at this fundraiser for the hospital, and we had been drinking, and the next thing I knew we were having sex in a hotel room he'd rented."

It felt strange to talk to her mother about sex- they'd always skirted around the topic when it had come up before- but April just listened encouragingly, so Clara continued,

"I didn't want to ruin our friendship, so I told him it couldn't happen again, but it did. Again. And again. And again. And every time we say it's not going to happen again, but then it does, and I really like him mom. I want more than just casual sex in supply closets, but I'm afraid if I tell him that I'll scare him off. I don't know what to do."

She dropped her face back into her arms, pressing her cheek against the smooth table top as she drifted somewhere between relief at finally getting the story off of her chest and mortification that her mother now knew she was having hot, frequent sex in supply closets.

As April remained silent Clara settled on mortification. Telling her mother about her sexcapades had definitely been a risk- even if she was more liberal than Clara had thought, it was still a lot to throw at her all at once.

Just as she was about to raise her head and beg for them to pretend that conversation had never happened, Clara felt her mother's arms wrap around her shoulders, pulling her into a tight hug and kissing her on the top of her head.

"Uh..."

"Believe me sweetie," April mumbled into her daughter's hair, "I know what you're going through. And I know it's not easy, and even when it feels right it still feels wrong, but you have to tell him."

"What if it ruins everything? He's all I have here."

"Honey if he didn't feel the same way about you that you feel about him he would have let you end it the first time you asked. You need to talk to him, get on the same page, or one of you is going to get hurt. I know, I've been there."

Clara frowned slightly as her mother stroked her hair,

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm?"

"You said you've been there, what do you mean?"

Clara could feel her mother tense up for a moment before sighing and beginning to speak.

"Your father and I were friends for a long, long time, and then all of a sudden we were more. I thought it was just sex, but it wasn't for him. But we never talked about it, and I ended up hurting him so badly I didn't think I would ever get him back."

"What? You never mentioned any of this."

"It's a lot more complicated than that. A lot of things happened, and we ended up hurting a lot of people before we were able to work things out. It turned out okay in the end, but we wasted more than a year of our lives without each other because we didn't talk about our feelings when we started having them. So believe me, you want to talk to Noah about how you're feeling. You don't want to screw things up and waste time that you could be together apart because you weren't on the same page."

Before her mind had caught up with her emotions, Clara found herself beginning to cry.

"I've really missed you mom." she said, turning and burying her face in her mother's shoulder. She felt like she was ten years old again, crying on April's shoulder over a boy (though this time the boy in question hadn't put a caterpillar in her hair during recess).

"I've missed you too sweetie. I wish your father and I could get out here to visit more often, I've always liked Boston."

Clara sniffled, "Well, maybe in a couple of years I'll be back in Seattle. Then you won't have to come visit, you can see me all the time. I could work with Aunt Arizona, if she'd have me… I guess she probably gets a lot of fellowship applicants."

April laughed, using her thumbs to wipe away Clara's tears as she finally lifted her head.

"I'm sure she and Uncle Alex would be happy to have you in peds with them. We'd all be happy to have you back, as long as that's what you want. But don't worry about it now, okay? You still have two years to think it over."

"Okay… mom?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."


End file.
